i7 iMac - should I buy the upgraded 2gb Graphics RAM?

[gwelmarten]

Hi

I am about to buy the i7 3.4Ghz 27inch iMac with 1TB hard drive and 16gb RAM. I will be using it for work in After Effects and was wondering if it would be beneficial to me speed wise to upgrade the graphics to 2gb from 1gb? Will I really see an improved performance if I do? I won't be using this computer for gaming.

Thank in advanced.

Sam

 

[Young Spade]

What kind of projects are you going to be doing?

Yes, you will see an improvement, but only if you stress the machine to the limit to where it needs it.

With After Affects, I'm assuming you're doing 3D modeling? or... what?

And how long are the clips that you work with, on average? And all in HD correct?

 

[larrybeo]

Is this a joke questino?

Who would pay $200 for 2GB of RAM? I don't care who you are, how much money you have, or what kind of projects you are working on - the answer is NO. Take your $200 and give it to a homeless shelter you will get more use out of it.

Now to troll - go build yourself a PC and you'll have a better product and can give yourself a 2GB RAM upgrade for $20.

 

[gwelmarten]

Thanks Young Spade. I will be doing videos up to 8 minutes in full HD with 3D modelling (as in moving the camera's perspective and looking from behind). If I am just running one instance of AfterEffects CS5.5, will I really notice a significantly smaller time in the rendering of a video?

 

[Young Spade]

Thanks Young Spade. I will be doing videos up to 8 minutes in full HD with 3D modelling (as in moving the camera's perspective and looking from behind). If I am just running one instance of AfterEffects CS5.5, will I really notice a significantly smaller time in the rendering of a video?

Well what you have to think about is the speed at which you see the renders in real time, when you're playing the video back, not the actual rendering of the file (I'm not sure whether you're talking about the former or latter).

What I'm saying is, like, with a MBP, the GPU is the bottleneck when doing actual editing on it (seeing the renders when you're shuffling through the timeline) but it renders the final video file with ease.

Now with that said, I suggest (if you haven't done so already), try looking for youtube videos with the computer that you want to get (or other imacs of lower configuration) and try to watch people edit their videos using the same program or whatever.

That will give you an idea of how well each graphics card holds up.

The SNB processor is going to handle the rendering just fine, but you're obviously thinking logically about whether to get the 1 or 2 without just throwing the money away, so that's always good.

You can just splurge and get the 2 if you have the money, as it isn't something you can upgrade later. If you're doing this for a job or it's really serious to you, I'd say to just get the 2. Down the road, you might start working on more intense projects and you won't be able to take the card out and put a better one in later (or can you?)

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Who would pay $200 for 2GB of RAM? I don't care who you are, how much money you have, or what kind of projects you are working on - the answer is NO. Take your $200 and give it to a homeless shelter you will get more use out of it.

Now to troll - go build yourself a PC and you'll have a better product and can give yourself a 2GB RAM upgrade for $20.

It's graphics card RAM, not standard RAM. Now yea, you're paying a lot more for that card, but it isn't dirt cheap like the 8 gigs for 50 you can find online.

 

[DeusInvictus7]

Who would pay $200 for 2GB of RAM? I don't care who you are, how much money you have, or what kind of projects you are working on - the answer is NO. Take your $200 and give it to a homeless shelter you will get more use out of it.

Now to troll - go build yourself a PC and you'll have a better product and can give yourself a 2GB RAM upgrade for $20.

Dude, at least read his question before you try to argue it. You're wrong on two counts. 1) It's $100 to upgrade and 2) Graphics RAM is not the same as normal RAM.

 

[gwelmarten]

Thanks for the replies.

Seeing the changes I make to the video in realtime and waiting for it to render the frames is what drives me crazy. Are you saying that upgrading from 2gb from 1GB will make it faster to render changes as I make them to play them on demand in the editor? Will this make a noticeable difference even with the 3.4Ghz quad core processor and 16gb normal RAM?

Sam

 

[Young Spade]

Dude, at least read his question before you try to argue it. You're wrong on two counts. 1) It's $100 to upgrade and 2) Graphics RAM is not the same as normal RAM.

Actually it's less if you buy it from a third party, which is what everybody who knows what they're doing does.

Thanks for the replies.

Seeing the changes I make to the video in realtime and waiting for it to render the frames is what drives me crazy. Are you saying that upgrading from 2gb from 1GB will make it faster to render changes as I make them to play them on demand in the editor? Will this make a noticeable difference even with the 3.4Ghz quad core processor and 16gb normal RAM?

Sam

I don't know, that's why I suggested you watch the video. Technically yes, as more graphics ram = better performance, BUT, seeing as that I don't know the details, you have to see how real world performance stands up.

If you don't fully tax the 1gb card, upgrading to 2 will just be wasting money.

Like getting a new computer for the SNB processor over a C2D when you only surf the web, watch hd video, and do light gaming; you're upgrading the wrong "parts" of the machine.

 

[DeusInvictus7]

Actually it's less if you buy it from a third party, which is what everybody who knows what they're doing does.

Lol well my point was that it was less than $200. I got mine for $80 with my work discount on the Apple site. And a nice discount for the whole computer.

 

[Young Spade]

Lol well my point was that it was less than $200. I got mine for $80 with my work discount on the Apple site. And a nice discount for the whole computer.

Well shoot, let me take this back and get a discount man

And not to derail, but how's the Galaxy S 2? When that comes out over here it's going to be a toss up between that and the iPhone 5.

 

[DeusInvictus7]

Well shoot, let me take this back and get a discount man

And not to derail, but how's the Galaxy S 2? When that comes out over here it's going to be a toss up between that and the iPhone 5.

To be honest, I do miss my iPhone (which I stupidly broke). While Android is great, and the customization is awesome and the phone itself is a beast, I just miss the stableness of iOS, and the fluidity of it. And the Android Market has not comparison to the App Store. There are hardly any good $.99 apps and not hardly any games compared to the App Store. I've pretty much stopped playing games on my phone since none are really interesting.

I gave the S2 a shot since I really wanted to see what Android was all about, and I've pretty much gotten my fix. So for me, when the iPhone 5 comes, I'm camping out.

Oh and probably the biggest thing for me, and something I didn't think would make a huge difference...I MISS THE IPOD APP! None of the Android alternatives are anywhere near. The closest one I've found was DoubleTwist, but there's just so many small things that make me miss the iPod app more and more each day. And I miss the Remote app lol

I guess once you've gotten settled into a platform, it's hard to have a device that's outside of it.

 

[Young Spade]

I guess once you've gotten settled into a platform, it's hard to have a device that's outside of it.

I listen to a lot of tech blogs and podcasts and this is something that rarely comes up but is a very valid point.

Moreso than Android, when somebody is invested in the iOS platform, it's harder for them to leave as more programs cost money.

For me, I had to sell my Nexus 1 to fund for the MBP I have now (using a feature phone; DO miss the free tethering though lol) and although it isn't that bad, I didn't buy many applications on it anyway so I didn't feel as invested; I'm thinking about getting the iPhone 5 (which I think I stated before, I forget) and I knwo that if I do, I'll end up spending a lot on applications and getting involved.

Personally, I don't think it will be that bad though; I learned that the OS X platform has a ton of productive and genuinely good applications that are solid and worth the money.

I've spent more in applications on this laptop than I have ever done in my entire life and I've only had the thing for 18 or so days.

 

[gullySn0wCat]

You can't buy video card RAM from a third party

I would get the upgrade if you are going to be running more than one monitor off your iMac.

 

[DeusInvictus7]

I listen to a lot of tech blogs and podcasts and this is something that rarely comes up but is a very valid point.

Moreso than Android, when somebody is invested in the iOS platform, it's harder for them to leave as more programs cost money.

For me, I had to sell my Nexus 1 to fund for the MBP I have now (using a feature phone; DO miss the free tethering though lol) and although it isn't that bad, I didn't buy many applications on it anyway so I didn't feel as invested; I'm thinking about getting the iPhone 5 (which I think I stated before, I forget) and I knwo that if I do, I'll end up spending a lot on applications and getting involved.

Personally, I don't think it will be that bad though; I learned that the OS X platform has a ton of productive and genuinely good applications that are solid and worth the money.

I've spent more in applications on this laptop than I have ever done in my entire life and I've only had the thing for 18 or so days.

Exactly. On the Android side, a lot of good apps are like $5 or something, which was pretty rare on iOS, where there was a really good amount of great apps for well under that. All the apps I've bought from the App Store have been worth it. I can't really say the same thing for all the stuff I've bought from the Android Market. On the other hand though, you do get a 15 minute return policy with the Android Market lol

 

[Young Spade]

You can't buy video card RAM from a third party

I would get the upgrade if you are going to be running more than one monitor off your iMac.

I know, I was referring to regular RAM, my apologies if it seemed like I was referring to graphical.

 

[Young Spade]

Exactly. On the Android side, a lot of good apps are like $5 or something, which was pretty rare on iOS, where there was a really good amount of great apps for well under that. All the apps I've bought from the App Store have been worth it. I can't really say the same thing for all the stuff I've bought from the Android Market. On the other hand though, you do get a 15 minute return policy with the Android Market lol

I really, really thought about getting the 11.6" alienware computer. For 1.1k, you get MBA internals with a 2gb discrete video card. AND 7 hour battery.

BUT, on Windows, I would have never found applications like Audio Hijack Pro, ScreenFlow, Aperture, Parallels (amazing), Fantastical, OmmWriter, and many more.

There are just so many productivity applications that I have running in the background that it isn't even funny. I'm not going to lie though, if you aren't ready to spend some money you'll definitely be missing out.

But if you do, as a college student I can't recommend anything else.

 

[DeusInvictus7]

I really, really thought about getting the 11.6" alienware computer. For 1.1k, you get MBA internals with a 2gb discrete video card. AND 7 hour battery.

BUT, on Windows, I would have never found applications like Audio Hijack Pro, ScreenFlow, Aperture, Parallels (amazing), Fantastical, OmmWriter, and many more.

There are just so many productivity applications that I have running in the background that it isn't even funny. I'm not going to lie though, if you aren't ready to spend some money you'll definitely be missing out.

But if you do, as a college student I can't recommend anything else.

I was actually thinking of getting the M11x too...but I've grown to be really tired of Windows since I left it in '08, and only go back to play a couple games. My MBA is just so much nicer to use and a million times better looking.

I feel the same for Mac apps. Parallels is awesome, though I don't run it on my laptop just to save space.

As far as spending money, most of my apps I bought with the $100 student App Store gift card lol. Only a couple of other apps I've actually spent money on.